


Us

by Beckon



Category: Mortal Kombat (Video Games)
Genre: Exhaustion, F/M, Insomnia, Minor Injuries, Post-Battle, Relaxing, Wartime, Watching Someone Sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:39:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25001776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beckon/pseuds/Beckon
Summary: Despite the darkness, given how Kenshi had looked on the helicopter ride home, Sonya knew that he looked every bit like he had just pulled off a day-and-a-half siege with her. Like he had stormed an off-shore Black Dragons hideout with the full intent to eradicate and secure the location through any means necessary.
Relationships: Sonya Blade/Takahashi Kenshi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Us

**Author's Note:**

> Shout out to my sister for giving me this idea.

Sonya didn't know what time it was.

It was somewhere between 0200 and 0500 maybe.

She had already turned her gauntlets over to weapons collection for the night, so she couldn't rely on the internal clock installed in the wrist panels.

Her right gauntlet had been smashed beyond repair, but her left one was still salvageable; it had been smoking when she handed it in, but it still worked for the most part. It would just need to be re-wired, go through some new pressure tests to be re-calibrated, get upgraded to a new shell, and it should be good to go.

Then again, given the haul they had just pulled from their latest siege, she could afford scraping them altogether and upgrading to a new pair.

Weapons collection would be more than happy to put the order in for her.

It'd be easier for them to design a new pair of gauntlets anyways, rather than try to fix what pieces she had turned over to them.

And given how badly bruised her arms were now, the old shells were beginning to wear thin- too thin to be dependable in a fight, especially not close combat.

"We'll get the salvage combed through and catalogued," the Major in front of her spoke, eyeing the cargo that was being dragged in from the crowded helipads. "We'll just need to get a couple of the night watch boys in here to help. We should be able to get you an itemized list of everything by early afternoon. We can get it sooner if you'd like- we'll just need to grab some of the boys from the garage-"

Sonya waved the remark off as she flipped through the loosely scribbled reports in hand.

Calling them reports was an overstatement, given that it was just information that had been pieced together from call-outs made during the last thirty-eight hours. But at least it gave her an idea of what to work with for the time being; an idea of what to anticipate when the full reports crossed her desk.

"I can wait," Sonya replied.

And it was probably only the fourth time she had ever said such a thing.

"Get the explosives team to run through everything before you guys start busting open boxes," she continued. "The last thing we need is a rigged up box in the hangar."

Sonya disappeared into her thoughts for a moment, reading over the slightly blurred-looking report again.

She barely heard the Major calling for back-up through his radio.

"You heading out, General?"

"Yeah," she answered, before she really understood the question. She folded up the loose papers and stuffed them into her jacket. "I'm going to head home for a few hours, give you guys some time to work without me breathing down your necks."

She heard the Major chuckle in response.

Sonya couldn't recall what the man's name was, or if she even recognized who he was.

But she could recognize the emblem on his jacket, and figured that was enough.

"If anything comes up, call me," she finished.

"Yes, ma'am."

Sonya turned to leave, departing from the now overcrowded hangar as she headed back towards the quieter portion of the base- getting away from the soldiers who were running back and forth with exhumed contraband.

Contraband that was actually stolen Special Forces property from the past three years or so.

She couldn't wait to see the reports and see the comparison between what they recovered and what they had previously lost.

She knew the numbers wouldn't match up exactly, but they were going to be pretty damn close.

Her head was still throbbing from the endless activity going on around the base. From soldiers going back and forth between runs, to higher officers calling each other over the radio, to the helicopters that were still hovering overhead, waiting for the next landing pad to open up so they could drop off their cargo.

And it really didn't help that every single high-powered spotlight was turned on, illuminating the base in a weirdly ethereal glow.

After a thirty-eight hour siege on a Black Dragon hideout, and then some, she just wanted to disappear for awhile.

It had been a long fucking time since she had last pulled off a stunt like that.

And she was beginning to remember why she had cooled off from joining in on sieges anymore- why she preferred to let the other ranks take charge and go in guns blazing.

But if something had the Black Dragons tied into it, she had to be there.

Even at the risk of her own health.

Sonya headed back towards medical, noting that at least this portion of the base seemed to be winding down in activity. It was still partly crowded with soldiers going in and coming out of the medical bay, but most of the yelling and calling out of orders had ceased.

There were a few medical personnel who were still standing outside, taking count of people coming and leaving- doing a headcount for the in-house patients who would be staying overnight.

"General Blade," one of the medical officers called out at her approach, waving her over. "Heading back to your office soon, I take it?"

"I'm leaving for the night," Sonya answered, "- or at least, I'm about to unless something comes up. You already cleared me for release, so don't even try it."

She had escaped the siege unscathed for the most part.

Just a couple of deep bruises, but that was about it.

Her arms felt a little numb but nothing worth an overnight stay in medical bay.

"Rest assured, I wouldn't even try," the woman replied, holding her hands up in mock surrender. "Officer Takahashi is clear for release as well. He has some minor bruising, but nothing serious; he'll be sore for a few days though, so give the man a break."

Sonya chuckled at the subtle chide.

Things were always a little more relaxed after a siege, with people more concerned with running around to get things done. There was more focus on cargo and making sure no one was getting something dropped on their foot than trying to remember someone's full rank. It was a small price to pay for the chaos, and at this point, she couldn't be hassled if someone was more focused on making sure their new cargo didn't explode than addressing her properly.

She was barely coherent enough to care anyways.

"He's pulled through worse," Sonya reminded, much to the personnel's dismay it seemed. "Where's he at? I'm his ride home."

"He's around back getting his head together. I'd recommend you find someone to keep an eye on him tonight; he may have some bruised ribs, but I'm a little worried about what's going on up top." The medical officer gestured to her head with the comment- which Sonya understood well enough. "You sure you don't want one of the boys off night watch to drive you two back? Thirty-eight hours of adrenaline isn't the safest thing to drive on."

"I don't live far," she reminded, waving the woman off. "Send me his full medical report in the morning."

"Of course, General."

Departing once more, Sonya made her way around the back of the medical bay, heading to where the medical officer had pointed her to.

She wasn't surprised that Kenshi would be here of all places; it was the darkest area on base that she had seen so far- just out of range from the aerial spotlights. It was relatively quiet as well, just barely interrupted by the quiet muffling coming from inside the bay.

And she found the man slowly pacing back and forth, which told her enough about his ongoing state.

Kenshi didn't pace unless something was bothering him.

Despite the darkness, given how he had looked on the helicopter ride home, she knew that he looked every bit like he had just pulled off a day-and-a-half siege with her. Like he had stormed an off-shore Black Dragons hideout with the full intent to eradicate and secure the location through any means necessary.

And that he had managed to survive an attempt made to gun him down while doing so.

And given how he seemed stripped of his armor, Sonya figured the damages done were enough to have it pulled off and sent to weapons collection as well.

She couldn't shake the memory of bullets striking his body armor, catching him off-guard and causing him to slide back a step or two. Nor could she forget the sound that each impact made, up until she heard the grinding of his armor splintering under the force.

If Kenshi hadn't snagged an overhead hangar door and ripped it down to serve as a makeshift barricade between him and the Black Dragons, she would be visiting him _inside_ of the medical bay instead of outside of it.

[If he was lucky.]

"You ready to get out of here?" Sonya called, noting that, for once, he didn't seem to have noticed her approach.

"I thought you'd never ask," Kenshi replied- and even his voice sounded exhausted. "We getting an escort?"

"Nah, I'm just going to take one of the trucks and head out myself," she answered. "Medical told me to keep an eye on you, so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone, and just take you home with me."

He chuckled lightly at the remark. "I'm fine," he assured. "Just a little exhausted, which I'm sure you're feeling the same."

"I got a second wind," Sonya remarked, before she reached out and took him by the arm.

It felt odd to just feel cloth underneath her hand, to feel the absence of his armor and the red ribbon that crosshatched between the metal plating. She took the opportunity to rub her hand along his upper arm, feeling the shape underneath her palm- and feeling the way he moved a hand to cover her own momentarily.

"Come on, let's head out before you pass out somewhere and I can't pick you up," she continued.

Kenshi gave no objections as he followed after her as she left for the garages now.

Most of their parked convoys had been sent out during the siege- and were still somewhere out circling the base somewhere. Sonya didn't keep track of them once they had landed; as far as she was concerned, it was the vehicle team's job to make sure all of the trucks were accounted for at the end of the night. Although she also knew that not all of the trucks would be accounted for. They had taken some mechanical losses during the all-out-brawl, and she had no doubts that she would be hearing from the financial and budgeting teams in the morning.

Entering the near empty garage, Sonya grabbed one of the few remaining keys that were still hanging up and tried to shield her eyes from the overhead lights as she headed towards one of three remaining trucks.

She unlocked the passenger door first and popped it open for him- and realized that that was the first time she was seeing Kenshi in the light since they had arrived back on base, and before they were separated by medical.

His blindfold was hanging around his neck for the time being, no doubt having been removed by the medical staff when he was admitted. They always tried to take it off of him, but Kenshi never did let them touch it, which irritated both sides.

He had a small burn mark on his right cheek, and she could see where a medical officer had tried to clean the soot from his face- no doubt having gotten it from an explosive going off too close to him.

"Wait," Sonya started, as she moved a hand to his shoulder to keep him from moving past her. "No one told me you had to get stitches."

Just above his left eyebrow were a handful of stitches closing a wound she had zero recollection or knowledge of. It wasn't bad by any stretch, with exception of the bruising around it, but given how the medical officer had gone out of their way to speak to her about him, Sonya figured something would've been mentioned.

"Took a piece of shrapnel a little too close," Kenshi started, just barely touching at the stitching himself. "Nothing bad, just a minor fracture."

"Fracture?" she repeated.

"Nothing bad," he repeated in return.

Shaking her head, Sonya patted him on the shoulder before she pushed him towards the cab. And she waited for him to get inside and situated before she closed the door and headed around to the driver's side.

Sonya didn't think there was anything more calming than hearing the truck rev up and feeling the cab shake as the engine came to life. It was quieter than the roaring engines she had been listening to all day- and much quieter than the rotary blades on a helicopter.

She pulled out of the garage as soon as the truck was able to- and she was off of the base before anyone else could try to interfere.

She usually stayed on base post-siege, to get things situated and sorted out herself- and to make sure there weren't any steps being skipped in the collection process.

But not this time.

It wouldn't be a long drive home, but Sonya was tempted to make it.

The silence was soothing, and the mindless art of driving on an empty road was enough to keep her headache at bay.

Sonya could hear Kenshi's heavy breathing from the passenger seat and chuckled to herself at how quickly he had fallen asleep already. He must've passed out as soon as they had left the garage.

He really was exhausted.

So was she, for that matter.

Doing one or two loops around the neighborhood, Sonya tried to work out the last of her restless energy before she inevitably gave in and pulled into her own driveway. She took a moment to sit there and try to get rid of the surreal sensation that hung over her. It seemed hard to believe that starting yesterday, they had stormed a hidden outpost with little knowledge of how long it was going to take them to run it dry.

And now she was here, sitting in a truck, sitting in her driveway, having just ended the ordeal.

She took a look at the digital clock on the dashboard.

0348

"Fuck me," she whispered.

The days were getting shorter it felt.

Reaching over, Sonya gently shook Kenshi awake, hearing the sharp inhale that signaled it, before she climbed out of the truck. Her legs felt like they could barely sustain her as she headed towards the front door, already wrestling the house key out of her jacket. Thankfully her hand coordination was still useful as she unlocked the door on the first try and shouldered it open.

The inside of the house was pitch dark.

And yet, it didn't stop her from stripping her jacket off and tossing it somewhere into the shadows.

Sonya didn't bother with turning the lights on and instead fished her phone out of her pocket, with the intention of using the light from the screen to find her way around the house. Her head was barely able to string two thoughts together; she couldn't be fucked to find the light switch, even with her phone out. And seeing as Kenshi certainly didn't mind the dark, the issue only affected her and she already had her own solution to it.

For all she knew the light bulbs were burnt out anyways.

She couldn't remember the last time she had changed them- or if she had even changed them to begin with.

For all she knew, these might've been the same light bulbs that the house had come with.

Come to think of it, when was the last time she had stayed overnight in this place?

She remembered how Kenshi had remarked once before that her house still had that just-bought scent to it, and that it didn't smell anything like her despite her living here. Which was something Sonya had initially denied, remarking that she had a cleaner come by once or twice to take care of the place, and that he was just sensitive to the chemicals that were still hanging around.

But then Jax told her the same thing.

As did Vera, the last time the woman had come over for loose gossip and coffee.

And at that point, even Sonya knew that a 3-v-1 didn't bole well in her favor.

She couldn't deny that she probably spent three days a month here- at most.

And that even then, she usually just stayed in her bedroom to catch up on sleep or work from her bed.

It really didn't help that all of her furniture was still practically brand new and untouched.

The coffee maker was the most used thing in the house, and it still had the price tag on it.

There was an end table that was still in its box, still stuffed in the corner of the living room.

Hell, even her couches hardly had a crease in them.

At the end of the day though, there was nothing she could do about it.

Work had to get done.

"You heading up?" Kenshi questioned from behind her, knocking her from her thoughts.

The man had managed to find his way inside, which really wasn't a big feat considering he seemed to know the place better than she did.

When he closed the front door behind him, he ended up cutting off any light from the outside- which there really wasn't much to begin with.

"No, not yet," Sonya answered, as she rubbed at the back of her neck and then moved to her jaw. "I'm gonna stay up for awhile. I'm exhausted but restless at the same time. You should take the guest room; you don't look like you're going to make it up the stairs."

"I'll just stay with you."

Sonya turned and shined her phone light on him, keeping the light focused on his chest to keep from irritating his eyes. "You should really get some sleep," she reiterated, hoping a slightly firmer tone would get the point across.

"And so should you," Kenshi countered.

He was getting harder to convince these days.

"Suit yourself."

Sonya followed her phone light towards the front of the house, grabbing her laptop from where she had abandoned it on the kitchen counter just before the siege, before she headed into the living room. She knew she wouldn't be able to lie down and sleep, no matter how exhausted she was; the restlessness would just keep her up.

She waited for Kenshi to follow the sounds of her footsteps, for him to catch up and join her, before she watched as he dropped himself onto the couch first; she settled herself in next to him for the time being.

Pulling her legs onto the couch, she tucked them underneath her and placed the laptop across her thighs before she opened it up.

And already, she could see the multitude of messages that flashed back at her.

Sonya had requested overhead surveillance footage of the siege, to track movement break down and scan it for combat data.

There was footage from the helicopters circling overhead, footage from drones on ground-level, shoulder cams from a few of her soldiers- a shit ton of data to start processing and going through. And given the increasing notifications from her cloud storage, there was plenty of footage _still_ coming in.

Settling in with the first video, she watched through the beginning stages of the siege- and realized just how quickly the whole thing exploded upon first contact, how quickly things began to go downhill.

It had been chaotic on the ground, but she could only witness what was in front of her, and what was around her to some degree; she couldn't see everything. So to see the full picture now, to see how six different contact points were going off at once, she found herself impressed that they had managed to pull it off to begin with- especially with as minimal losses as they had.

Sonya made it through the third video, a full hour of footage, before she found herself not even paying attention to what was going on on the screen- and quickly closed her laptop.

She couldn't chance wasting her time in watching it if she wasn't going to categorize what was going on.

Setting the laptop aside, she leaned back into the couch and rubbed at her temples.

Her mind was still going a mile a minute despite having something to distract herself with.

And yet, she knew she would just be wasting her own time by trying to force sleep- and lying in an uncomfortable bed sounded even worse than sitting on the couch watching war time footage.

The heavy breathing next to her however, told her that her partner didn't have the same issue.

But in Kenshi's case, he was beyond both mentally and physically exhausted.

With the exception of some stitches and bruised ribs, and other minor injuries she would be reading in his report in the morning, he had escaped the battle mostly unscathed. But constantly being on the move through a rage-infested hideout for thirty-eight hours would be enough to knock anyone down a peg or two. And that was without mentioning how he had overused and extended his telekinetic powers, as well as his telepathy.

Or at least, Sonya would've loved to say that Kenshi had overused his powers, but the truth of the matter was that he had needed to use them as much as he had.

Kenshi had used his telepathy to track Black Dragon members hiding in the belly of their hideout.

As well as helped a few units to avoid several attempted ambushes.

They would've been in a worse off position had he needed to dial his powers back.

Sonya didn't think she would be seeing him awake again until that afternoon.

With restlessness turning into insomnia, Sonya moved her hand to the top of the back cushion and felt around until she found the TV remote. Her mind was too fuzzy to focus on collecting data, but she could go for something mindless to distract herself with. Switching the TV on, she watched as the screen lit up and began showing off some late-night infomercial- to which she quickly switched the channel.

The sound was muted but the subtitles flashed across the bottom of the screen with every channel she skipped over.

Despite not watching TV often, mostly because of her lack of time, but also because she didn't care for it, she had gotten used to having the subtitles on. And in this case, she was glad she had preemptively done so.

They had dropped explosives that morning mid-siege.

And despite being far enough away to avoid the blast zone, it felt like her ears were still ringing from it. She couldn't imagine how Kenshi was feeling, although she doubted the noise from the TV would've been enough to wake him up.

It didn't help that years spent in the military, years already spent shooting guns, firing off explosives, and riding in helicopters on the regular were finally taking their toll. Sonya always made sure to wear protective head gear when she could, but she couldn't predict everything. And one too many roadside explosives had caught her off-guard enough to make hearing in her right ear sound out of tune.

So putting the subtitles on just felt like the right move to make, so at least when she did inevitably need them, she would already be used to it.

Sonya moved her arm to rest behind Kenshi, before she moved her fingers to toy with his hair while she continued to flip through the channels; she gently raked the grey stands back, using the gesture to distract herself.

She eventually settled on some black and white movie and tossed the remote aside.

She didn't know, nor care about whatever was playing; she just wanted something mindless to tire her mental state out with.

And it didn't take long before she felt her attention shifting in and out of focus on the TV.

Before the subtitles at the bottom of the screen were just words she was reading rather than dialogue for her to comprehend.

It felt like as soon as she read them, they just disappeared; she held little to no recollection of whatever had been previously said.

But in some out of mind state, Sonya did catch herself chuckling at some kind of side-gag the movie pulled off- although she could barely remember what it even was once it was off the screen.

She heard Kenshi chuckle afterwards.

Which, inevitably, caught her off-guard.

"You were reading the subtitles in your head," Kenshi remarked, his voice slightly husky now as he moved to rub at the scarring under one of his eyes. She watched as he gingerly moved his fingers to touch at the still-fresh sutures again, before quickly changing his mind about it. "I was just reading along."

Sonya shook her head as she turned her attention to him- and decided not to chide him for the late-night mind reading.

"Well, maybe you'll find it more entertaining than I have," she replied.

"You're not paying attention to it," he reminded.

"And how would you know?"

"Because you're reading the subtitles, but you're not holding onto them," Kenshi answered. "They go in and go out without staying- they're a little hard for me to keep up with."

"Do you want me to slow them down for you then?" she asked, half-assing the subtle tease.

"That would be great."

She shook her head again as she continued to run her fingers through his hair, before she tested the idea of leaning against his shoulder. The prominent ache in her joints and back enjoyed the comfort of being supported by someone else for a change- and her mind seemed to give a little under the motion as well.

A warm shower might help finish off what resistance was left.

And Sonya questioned why something like that wasn't already at the top of her list.

Hell, they could both use a good shower, a clean pair of clothes- and eventually, a nice bed. They only issue seemed to be that neither of them could be fucked to do any of those things when they walked in, but... there was some plausibility in being able to do them now.

Although she hoped maybe by the time she dragged the both of them upstairs, they would just pass out in bed instead- and worry about the rest of it tomorrow.

"You're not going to finish watching the movie?" Kenshi asked.

"Hm? No, I'd rather turn it off," she replied, as she pulled away to try and figure out where she had tossed the remote.

"You're going to make me miss the ending."

Sonya chuckled as she managed to snag the remote, before she switched the TV off and tossed the device onto the back of the cushion once more. She moved a hand to his jaw and tilted his head in her direction- and her eyes were adjusted just enough to the darkness that she could see the amused look he was sporting; exhausted, but still amused.

"And that's my cue to get you to a proper bed to sleep in," she remarked.


End file.
